


Let's Live Tonight Like it's Our First

by PadawanRyan



Category: Bandom, Jonas Brothers, The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Happiness Begins Tour, Introspection, M/M, Mike Doing a Lot of Thinking, Mild Language, Past Relationship(s), Post-Break Up, Reunions, meet and greet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26979388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PadawanRyan/pseuds/PadawanRyan
Summary: Mike was momentarily drawn from his thoughts as the line moved closer and he realized with a start thathe was next. In less than a minute – these meet and greet things never lasted particularly long – he would be seeing Kevin for the first time in ten years.It had been ten years since Kevin was given the ultimatum by Disney to either “ditch him or we ditch you.”
Relationships: Mike Carden/Kevin Jonas, Past Kevin Jonas/Danielle Jonas
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	Let's Live Tonight Like it's Our First

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't know how this came to me, but earlier this week I had been attacked on Tumblr for a number of reasons by aggressive teenagers, one of them being my Jonas Brothers fanfiction. Although they were attacking my more _controversial_ Jonas Brothers fanfiction - not my Skippy fics (of which there are only two, and only one where the pairing is not a background pairing), thinking about the whole goddamn fucking situation earlier today randomly put this thought into my head.
> 
> It also might have been the Mike Carden photo set that someone posted and I reblogged. I often think of Kevin in association when I think of Mike, because Skippy is actually one of my OTPs.
> 
> Since I actually did purchase a VIP package and did the meet and greet during the Happiness Begins Tour last summer, I thought it would be interesting to write Mike doing the same thing, to write this sort of reunion between them while the Jonas Brothers reunion was happening. So, here we are, and I hope there are still some Skippy readers out there to enjoy it.

Mike couldn’t help feeling “I shouldn’t be here” as he stood in line, among a bunch of young adults who would have certainly been children the last time they had been there.

And yet, his heart was racing in anticipation. He _wanted_ to be there.

Nobody noticed, because he was good at hiding his nervousness, how jittery he was as the meet and greet line moved closer. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he finally reached the front. It was entirely possible that _he_ wouldn’t remember Mike and think that Mike was just a weird thirty-four year old man who was obsessed enough with the band to purchase a VIP package. But if Mike couldn’t forget _him_ , then surely, he would never be able to forget Mike — unless, of course, Kevin had been hurt enough to push Mike into the back of his subconscious.

That was possible.

But surely – _surely_ – the whole _poeticness_ of this situation would be hard to ignore. He was recreating the first time they met, when his bandmates had dared him to not only attend a Jonas Brothers concert, but to do the whole meet and greet. At the time they thought it was funny because he was a badass twenty-three year old alternative rock star — the type of person nobody expected to see at a Jonas Brothers concert.

Now, he still looked out of place. But people like Jay Z had already been spotted at shows on this reunion tour, so at least he wasn’t the most unexpected.

Plus, nobody recognized Mike. They didn’t even recognize him back _then_.

He could remember the moment his eyes locked with the oldest brother, the man with the curly hair and the ridiculous mutton chops and the fucking _scarf_ as though his entire appearance was screaming “I’m gay!” Of course, at the time all Mike thought that his appearance screamed was “I’m perfect for Mike Carden!”

Because, somehow, the kid _was_ perfect for Mike. He didn’t have a typical _type_ so he wouldn’t have even been able to describe any of the kid’s features as something he was looking for in a partner, but standing there in front of him and attached to the most _welcoming_ smile he had ever received…well, there was no doubt about it. If Mike had believed in silly things like love at first sight, he would definitely have believed that it was love at first sight with the oldest Jonas brother, whose name he didn’t even _know_. The kids behind him in line would surely have called him a poser or something along those lines.

But those kids didn’t feel—no wait, of course those kids felt the same way. They were probably all experiencing their sexual awakenings to these three boys.

He remembered shaking the kid’s hand and introducing himself as, “Mike Carden, I’m in a band,” before lying through his teeth and adding, “I love your stuff, fucking rad.” It had occurred to him after a moment that perhaps a _Disney_ band should have flinched at the language – how scandalous of Mike – but they hadn’t, because as Mike would learn later, they were actually pretty _normal_ outside of their innocent Disney images.

Then they snapped the group picture and Mike went on his way.

He stayed for the whole show. The music wasn’t quite his thing, but he was also pleased to find out that he didn’t hate it. And that curly haired kid, he discovered, was a guitarist with some absolutely _amazing_ energy. That kid could _dance_.

And that was that. The concert was done and Mike went back home and that was the end of it.

Until he received an email from the kid about a week later — the kid who had remembered his name was Mike Carden and that he was in a band and had apparently _looked up_ said band so that he could tell Mike that “your stuff is fucking rad too” and launch into a passionate _essay_ (for lack of a better word) about his favourite The Academy Is… songs. There was no doubt about it: Mike was already on track to being _in love_ with the kid and he didn’t even know—oh wait, this time he _did_ know the kid’s name, because he signed the email with it.

_Kevin_.

Mike was momentarily drawn from his thoughts as the line moved closer and he realized with a start that _he was next_. In less than a minute – these meet and greet things never lasted particularly long – he would be seeing Kevin for the first time in ten years.

It had been ten years since Kevin was given the ultimatum by Disney to either “ditch him or we ditch you.” They hadn’t begun dating right away – at first it was just correspondence about music with some flirting added in, before suddenly it became _meeting up_ to have these conversations – but once they had crossed the threshold between friends and lovers, they had become a little more careless. The fans hadn’t quite picked up on it, but Disney had, and a relationship with another man was not something they were ready yet to condone. Mike had some choice words he never got the chance to voice to them.

And Kevin…wouldn’t ditch him. He refused to let Disney control his life.

But Mike refused to ruin Kevin’s career.

So, it was Mike who left. It was Mike who had taken the step to end things, to let Kevin down as gently as possible while again lying through his teeth while he told the kid, “it isn’t gonna work out long-term and I think you know that.” It _hurt_ , but it was necessary.

The kid reacted by getting married before the year was out. Mike wasn’t even sure that the kid was into women, but clearly, he had taken the path that Disney had mapped out for him: a beautiful wife, a heterosexual marriage, and a career under their thumb. The last one fell apart only a few years later, when the band had split from Disney after their contract ended and chose to sign with a different label. And then _the band_ itself had fallen apart.

But Kevin’s heterosexual marriage to his beautiful wife remained strong, to the point where he had even had a couple kids, before it, too, fell apart.

Mike tried not to blame himself for Kevin’s _life_ falling apart as he read about it in the news over the years. He had made his decision because he thought he was protecting the kid, and coming back into the kid’s life while he was broken would have been akin to kicking him while he was down — the reminder that Mike had hurt him, that Mike had been the _first_ to hurt him in a long line that consisted of his brothers, his ex-wife, and even his fans. No, Mike would not have been welcome, so Mike put Kevin behind him and focused on his career — the anniversary tour with his band, and his then business with Gabe.

The Host VIP staff waved Mike in for his turn and he was almost tempted to turn on his heel and _go_. He wouldn’t be welcome, he shouldn’t have come, he should just—

“ _Mike?_ ”

There he was. Kevin, ten years older than Mike had last seem him, looking every bit as gorgeous _and more_ as he had ten years earlier, _gaping_ at Mike as though he was the last person Kevin ever expected to see — which was probably true, because why the hell would Mike show up here after ten years? Why had he let Gabe talk him into this at the office?

He wasn’t supposed to get much time – the meet and greets were only supposed to last maybe thirty seconds before the picture was snapped – but he couldn’t get any words out.

Fuck, he was ruining his only chance to _apologize_ to the kid.

He should have just left.

But then, before he had the chance to even turn around – and the jury was still out on whether he was actually going to leave, because why come all this way just to run? – a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and _clung_. Mike was shocked that Kevin would ever have responded _this_ way to seeing the man who had ruined his life all those years ago, but tentatively slung his arms around the kid’s – it didn’t matter that he was in his thirties now, he’d always still be _the kid_ – waist and returned the hug. He closed his eyes and breathed in the feeling of Kevin’s body against his — it almost felt like coming home.

“ _Mike_ ,” Kevin breathed into his neck, and Mike couldn’t help but squeeze him closer.

“I missed you,” he admitted.

They could have been standing there in one another’s embrace for hours, but considering the kid had a _concert_ to play on his band’s – his _family’s_ – reunion tour, Mike knew it had probably only been about a minute when one of the Host VIP staff cleared their throat. Right, there was still a line of people outside the door waiting to meet the band.

As they reluctantly pulled apart, Mike scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I should—”

“No, stay,” Kevin protested. “I’ll have them get you a backstage pass, someone—” he turned to the nearest staff member, “—get him a backstage pass. That is,” he began, turning back to Mike, “if you want to.”

They would need to talk. He knew that, there was a lot to discuss. But that could wait, because Kevin was _smiling at him_ and Mike…

Mike wanted to kiss him.

Because he really did feel like he had just come home.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on social media! I'm **padawanryan** on [Tumblr](https://padawanryan.tumblr.com/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/PadawanRyan), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/padawanryan/). ✌️


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